Now, a contest for students to develop UID software

July 25, 2011 at 10:06 pm | Posted in Labor | Comments Off on Now, a contest for students to develop UID software

 

Now, a contest for students to develop UID software

Vishwas Kothari May 30, 2011, 11.32pm IST

PUNE: Students from engineering and science colleges in the state will now compete with each other to develop an application software which the government will use to provide various services to the unique identification (UID), or ‘Aadhaar’, number holders.

The state department of information technology (DIT), which falls under the general administration department ( GAD), has announced a university- and state-level competition for college students to zero in on the best application software for the UID project. Moreover, projects prepared by the participating students will be treated as a part of their regular course activity.

‘Aadhaar’ is a 12-digit unique number which the Unique Identification Authority of India will issue to all residents. The number will be stored in a centralised database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information – photograph, ten fingerprints and iris – of each individual.

The randomly generated number, devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography, will go a long way in eliminating duplicate and fake identities in government and private databases.

Once residents enroll for ‘Aadhaar’, the service providers will no longer face the problem of performing repeated Know Your Customer checks. They will no longer have to deny services to residents without identification documents. Residents would also be spared the trouble of repeatedly proving identity through documents each time they wish to acquire a bank account, passport, driving license etc.

Aadhaar will empower poor and underprivileged residents in accessing services such as the formal banking system and give them the opportunity to easily avail various other services provided by the government and the private sector. The centralised technology infrastructure of the UIDAI will enable ‘anytime, anywhere, anyhow’ authentication. Aadhaar will thus give migrants mobility of identity.

On May 13, the DIT issued a government resolution (GR) detailing the format of the competition, starting with the formation of four teams, each comprising four students, at the college level; submission of the projects to the affiliating university; shortlisting of projects for the state-level contest, etc.

 

A state-level evaluation committee, comprising experts from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and representatives of the ‘Aadhaar’ management unit and coordination department, will select the five best projects from the entries forwarded by the universities.

“We will soon announce an apt timeframe for the submission of projects for the university-level contest and the ensuing state-level contest,” DIT under secretary Santosh H Bhogle, who issued the GR, told TOI on Monday.

The director of technical education, too, has sent letters to all technical and science institutions asking them to encourage their students to participate in the contest.